# fictus
## Latin
### Etymology 1

Perfect passive participle of fingō (“dissemble, deceive”); from Proto-Italic *fiktos, from earlier *θiktos, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰiǵʰ-tós.

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈfik.tus/, [ˈfɪkt̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈfik.tus/, [ˈfikt̪us]

#### Participle

fictus (feminine ficta, neuter fictum); first/second-declension participle
* feigned, fictitious, false, counterfeit, having been feigned.

##### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

##### Derived terms

* fictīcius

##### Descendants

* ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *finctus
** Italo-Romance:
*** Italian: finto, finta (see there for further descendants)
** Rhaeto-Romance:
*** Friulian: fent, fint
** Gallo-Italic:
*** Lombard: fint
*** Piedmontese: fint
** Gallo-Romance:
*** French: feint, ⇒ fictif
**** → English: feint, fictive
*** Occitan: fench
** Ibero-Romance:
*** ⇒ Portuguese: fita

### Etymology 2

Alternative form of fīxus, perfect passive participle of fīgō.

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈfiːk.tus/, [ˈfiːkt̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈfik.tus/, [ˈfikt̪us]

#### Participle

fīctus (feminine fīcta, neuter fīctum); first/second-declension participle
* Alternative form of fīxus
** 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Agricultural Topics 3.7.4.7:Sub ordines singulos tabulae fictae ut sint bipalmes, quo utantur vestibulo ac prodeant.
** c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 3.4, (interpreted by Konstan 1988 as a pun or dual meaning alluding to the sense "false" or "fictive" of fictus, the participle of fingo):E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen qui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda vitae, te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus, inque tuis nunc ficta pedum pono pressis vestigia signis, non ita certandi cupidus quam propter amorem quod te imitari aveo; quid enim contendat hirundo cycnis, aut quid nam tremulis facere artubus haedi consimile in cursu possint et fortis equi vis?
** 70 CE , (engraved Roman military diploma):Recognitu(m) ex tabula aenea, quae ficta est Romae in Capitolio ante emeritorum antearam gentis Iuliae intri(n)secus podium lateris dexteriori(s) contra signum Liberi{s} patris, tabula II.
** c. 4th century, Diomedes Grammaticus, Ars grammatica 1.377, (mentioned in grammatical discussion that cites alleged earlier uses; this passage may be based on Pliny the Elder's work Dubii sermonis):‘figor’ ambigue declinatur apud ueteres tempore perfecto. reperimus enim ‘fictus’ et ‘fixus’: Scaurus De vita sua ‘sagittis–inquit–confictus’, Varro ad Ciceronem tertio ‘fixum’, et Cicero Academicorum tertio ***‘malcho in opera adfixa’, et Vergilius ‘si mihi non animo fixum’.

##### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

##### Descendants

* Aromanian: hiptu
* Italian: fitto
* Romansch: fetg
* Ibero-Romance:
** Asturian: fitu
** Portuguese: fito
** Spanish: hito

### References

* ↑ Konstan, David (1988) “Lucretius on Poetry: III.1-13”, in Colby Library Quarterly‎, volume 24, number 2, pages 65-70
* ↑ Sharankov, Nicolay (2006) “A Military Diploma of 7 March 70 AD for Legio II Adiutrix”, in Archaeologia Bulgarica‎, volume 10, number 2, pages 37-46
* ↑ Garcea, Alessandro (2019) “Diomedes as a Source for Pliny’s Dubio Sermo: Some Editorial Problems”, in Rationes Rerum–Rivista di filologia e storia‎, volume 14, pages 53-71

### Further reading

* “fictus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “fictus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* fictus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* fictus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. creatures of the imagination: res cogitatione fictae or depictae (ambiguous) a feigned expression: vultus ficti simulatique